Online scams escalate as e-commerce gains popularity
With more Filipinos nowadays feeling the economic pinch caused by the recent quarantines, scams of all forms have either been resuscitated or resurfaced in new forms.
It’s been awhile since someone sent me a text message asking me to return money, purportedly sent by mistake to my phone wallet. No matter how hackneyed and ancient this scheme, I presume it still manages to get a few victims to actually give a few hundred pesos “back” to the scammer.
Truly, desperate times breed desperate schemes. A remedy that seemed to have worked, even temporarily in the past, was to immediately report the number used by the scammer to your service provider. Don’t just ignore these attempts to scam you, but help prevent a possible new victim from getting duped.
The same treatment should be made for those who ask targeted mobile users to “replace” their old SIM cards in an attempt to steal personal information, including banking details and passwords. Immediately report such attempts to your service provider.
Illegal job recruitment
Another scam that had surfaced anew involves job recruitment and placement. Because of the lockdowns, illegal recruiters are taking advantage of the absence of legitimate recruiters who have temporarily closed their offices.
With job seekers desperate to find employment, a number of scammers have stepped up their criminal acts by posing to be legitimate recruitment agencies, and in the process asking for various fees to reserve job opportunities, attend seminars, and “rights” to job openings.
Illegal job recruiters have improved their game by seeking and reaching out to their victims through e-mails. By being able to get online identities of job seekers, they quickly act by sending job offers through e-mail letters. To the less discerning, these letters seem legitimate.
With many government offices running on a skeletal force, verifying the authenticity of recruitment agencies has become difficult. Reporting such dastardly attempts with the concerned government agencies is a good recourse, but the best way to thwart such evil efforts is to never let go of your hardearned money, no matter how attractive the offer is.
The latter advice is also good for those who receive investment offers through e-mail or the internet. Remember also that attempts to entice you to invest in moneymaking deals with high returns are most probably bogus and too good to be true.